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Accounting jointly for about six percent of global C02 emissions air lines and shipping companies constitute an increasing burden for the planet, as the volume of air and sea transport, of goods and passengers, keeps rising in the wake of globalisation. Until now both sectors have escaped any climate regulation, due to complex international legislation,… » read more

The southern Mediterranean countries have a vital interest in engaging in the fight against climate change. Their share in global green house gas emissions may still be small, but bound to rise due to population growth and increasing energy demand; and sooner or later the international community will ask them to contribute their fair share… » read more

The Copenhagen Climate Conference is most likely to end in a failure, due to the complexity of the proposed solutions and the diversity of positions of the key actors. But this must not be the end of the story. Humanity has no option but to continue acting against climate change if it wants to avoid… » read more

Whatever the outcome of the Copenhagen Climate Conference, humanity will need a simple and effective tool for making fossil energy increasingly more expensive and renewable energies relatively cheaper. An excise tax on coal, oil and gas would constitute such a tool. • The tax should be specific and not ad valorem, levied at the import… » read more

It appears almost certain that the US Congress will not be in a position to pass a climate act in time for the Copenhagen Climate Conference due to start in 90 days. The very cautious bill that the House passed in June goes far beyond what the Senate with its narrow Democratic majority is ready… » read more

Humanity is at the very beginning of a long process which will lead one day to the electric car. This is the impression one gathers from the 2009 International Automobile Exhibition in Frankfurt. At present, no more than a few thousand electric cars are running on the roads or streets in Japan, Europe and the… » read more

Munich, the third biggest German city with a population of one million people, has announced its intention to make its electricity supply “green” by 2025. This will happen in two stages. As early as 2015, all private households will be provided with electricity from water, biomass, solar and wind, and by 2025 the city also… » read more

Three months ahead of the Copenhagen Climate Conference international attention risks being diverted to a side show: droughts, floods and rising sea levels, the unavoidable consequences of climate change. This is the wrong debate at the wrong moment. The UN should have killed this debate long ago instead of fomenting it. The central objective for… » read more

The newly elected Japanese candidate for prime minister has demonstrated political courage by raising Japanese climate targets for 2020. In his capacity as leader of the Democratic Party, he has indicated that Japan should reduce its C02 emissions by 25 percent over 1990 rather than only 8 percent, as proposed by his predecessor in government.… » read more

In the autumn of 2008 the EU ministers of agriculture had decided to progressively liberalise the European milk market until 2015. To that end, the milk production quotas are to be lifted by 1 percent annually. This decision put an end to almost 50 years of EU milk market organisation, which fixed milk prices internally… » read more

Thoughts on energy and climate, the Mediterranean and whatever comes to mind.

About: Rhein on Energy and Climate

Eberhard Rhein has devoted most of his life to European and global issues. During the 1980s and 1990s, he served successively as chef de cabinet to the Commission VP in charge of external relations and director responsible for the Mediterrranean and Arab world.

For the past 10 years he has focused more on global environmental issues.

He also gives a course on economic policy at the "Mediterranean Academy for Diplomatic Studies" in Malta. He is the author of many articles on EU, Mediterranean and international subjects